Copycat blasts disrupt travel in London

No serious injuries are reported

July 22, 2005|By Christine Spolar and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune

LONDON -- A series of small, synchronized explosions on three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus caused panic but no serious injuries Thursday, two weeks after eerily similar bombings killed 56 people in the city's worst terrorist attack.

The explosions appeared to have been caused by detonators that malfunctioned and failed to trigger bombs, according to witnesses and experts, and provided a chilling reminder of the continuing vulnerability of big-city transit systems.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair, choosing his words carefully, said that "an attempt has been made to set off explosive devices" at four sites. "The intention must have been to kill," he said. He added that some of the devices did not explode, and this "may represent a significant breakthrough in the investigation."

British media, quoting police sources, reported late Thursday that the unexploded bombs appeared to be of similar design to those used in the attacks two weeks ago. Experts said that if the bombs recovered Thursday were from the same batch, it was possible the explosives had degraded to the point that they would not detonate.

The incidents unnerved a populace still mourning the victims of the July 7 attacks. The initial blast Thursday at the Warren Street tube station occurred just minutes after the conclusion of a memorial service a few blocks away at Tavistock Square, where 13 people died on the No. 30 bus.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who received word of Thursday's incident during a luncheon with his Australian counterpart, John Howard, convened a meeting with his top ministers and security advisers, and later told reporters: "We know why these things are done. They are done to scare people and frighten them. To make them anxious and worried. . . . We have to react calmly and continue as much as possible as normal."

In addition to Warren Street, the other Underground stations hit were Shepherd's Bush, near the British Broadcasting Corp.'s studios, and Oval, on the south bank of the Thames. The bus, which apparently suffered only a shattered window, was a No. 26 that was near Bethnal Green in London's East End.

Eyewitnesses told British reporters that they heard small explosions and saw possible suspects fleeing the scene.

"I was in a middle carriage, and the train was not far short of Warren Street when suddenly the door between my carriage and next one burst open and dozens of people started rushing through. Some were falling. There was mass panic," Ivan McCracken, a passenger on a Victoria Line train, told Sky Television News.

"When I got to ground level there was an Italian young man comforting an Italian girl who told me he had seen what happened," McCracken said.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack, and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack. The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage," he said.

Hugo Palit was entering the Warren Street station: "I heard noises, like shouting and screaming, and suddenly I saw a guy coming out and people chasing him.

"He came out from the station, he was running and he was a little bit confused, looking right and left. I couldn't really catch him because I was carrying two heavy bags, and then he passed by me. There was another guy who was chasing him," Palit said on Sky News. At Shepherd's Bush, a suspect package was found on the station platform, but it was not clear whether there was any detonation.

Witnesses at the Oval tube station said that a man carrying a bag got on the train, dropped a backpack and then ran.

"I was in the carriage next to the one where the bag was. All of a sudden there was a popping. It sounded like champagne popping. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but then I heard a lot of shouting from the next-door carriage. People started saying, `Smoke, smoke.' One of the train guys came through and said, `Get off the train; we're evacuating -- everyone off,' " the witness said, according to British news reports.

"As we were walking past the carriage we could see the bag sitting on the chair. It was a big, black rucksack, like the backpack-type ones that you get," he said.

After the evacuations, police in chemical-protection suits checked the Underground stations and determined no chemical agents were present.

Several witnesses said the man who fled the Warren Street explosion ended up at University College Hospital, a few blocks away.

Police cordoned off the hospital, and officers armed with submachine guns were seen entering the building. Soon after, hospital staff received a notice advising them to be on the lookout for "a male, black, possibly Asian, 6'2", with a blue top and a hole in the rear of this top with wires protruding from it."

Some workers were seen streaming out of the hospital, but doctors and nurses remained inside and patients were not evacuated even as the police search took over the six-story facility.